Iowa Farmboy meets Southern Belle, girl finishes college and moves from Georgia to Iowa to be closer to boy, boy marries girl, boy's job takes them both to Belo Horizonte, Brasil. One year later they have a baby (Gabriela Marina), another year passes and they move back to Iowa. A few months later they have a 2nd baby (Lilian Scarlett). The 3rd girl (Makayla Jasmine) joins the family a couple years after that. Boy continues job with a construction equipment maufacturing company in Burlington, Iowa; girl attempts to balance being a stay at home mom while working as a birth doula and childbirth educator.

We laugh a lot, travel as often as we can, and try to enjoy every moment of the craziness that is our lives. Thanks for joining us on the journey!

Friday, January 25, 2008

The Market and a Flying Love Seat

So happy, happy day! Our shipment arrived with everything in good shape with the exception of 2 picture frames that suffered some serious damage (yeah, the box full of glass shards was fun to handle!) I got it all put away for the most part and even managed a couple other little projects today (like going to the market and watching my neighbor's delivery people.)

One of the best parts of living here (both in Brasil and in the big city) is the prevalence of markets. Every Friday morning there is a food market that sets up on a street 2 blocks from our apartment. It is a great time to get some awesome deals on fresh fruits and veggies (and more if you're brave enough.)

Here's a shot looking down the street. They don't actually close the street, so you kind of have to dodge cars, but hey, a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do to get her bananas, you know? Also worth noting is my issue with eggs down here. Right there to the right in the photo is a stand selling eggs - it was about 83 degrees this morning. But the thing is, eggs are never refrigerated here, not even in the grocery store. Ummmm . . . ick! Eric likes to remind me that chicken don't lay eggs in refrigerators and I have been in my fair share of chicken houses in Georgia. But still . . . ick! I'm sorry, I just can't get over that one.

There is such a great variety of stuff. Almost every fruit and vegetable you can imagine. And it is so cheap! I came away with 5 stuffed grocery bags and I spent about US$10! (And that was after I splurged on a couple high dollar items!) Trying doing that in your local produce department! And if you're really brave, you can buy sausage hanging from the tent-top. No, I'm not that brave yet. There is refrigerated meat in those coolers on either side of the dangling sausage, but I'll stick to buying mine from the grocery store or butcher shop. Street side meat isn't my thing. (It's kind of like my whole egg hang up.)

This afternoon, as I was putting away all the glorious things from our shipment, I carried a box into the office. As I walked in I saw what appeared to be a levitating love seat right across the street. Turns out somebody was having one delivered and I am assuming it wouldn't fit through their door or something. I've heard of this situation in apartments, but I've never seen anything quite like it. It was a real Kodak moment for me. ;)

These 4 guys (bless their hearts!) were working their behinds off trying to get this thing hoisted up there. Pulleys, I really wanted to go talk to these guys about pulleys...

you can take the girl outta georgia but you can't take georgia outta the girl! i am so proud of you! so, how long did you watch the flying love seat?!!!!

when we lived in gray on the main highway, people were always getting pulled over right on front of our house and back then we didn't have cable (and we love cops)so we would stand at the window for like 30 min.hoping to see some real action! just thought i would share!!!!

The eggs are safe in Brazil, trust me, the reason there are not refrigerated is because most of it is produced locally and consumed fast, usually within a week. Eric is right! Eggs are produced in a natural enviroment, the only reason they are refrigerated back home in the US is because the eggs usually travel far to get to your grocery store, eggs would just freeze being transported in the winter if they weren't protected in a refrigerated truck, they would certainly go bad when going across the deserts in the west to reach California or to leave California for the East Coast. The food production and distribuition logistics in the US are very complex due to the size of the country, the size of the consuming market, so, most frequently then not, large quantities of eggs sit in a warehouse waiting to be distributed to whatever state needs it at the moment... This absolutely doesn't happen in Brazil, usually most of the larger cities are surrounded by smaller towns nearby that produce and ship the eggs to the grocery stores in Belo Horizonte, the same happens in Sao Paulo, Rio and so forth...the production and distribuiton in Brazil is much simpler then in the US, and this is why the eggs there are just fine not being refrigerated. Actually, they will probably even taste better, because they are fresh and have not been refrigerated before. Here is a tip for bying eggs in Brazil, you should ask for "Ovo Caipira' which translates to "country eggs" and it means the chickens were roaming freely and ate veggies and not "industrialized feed", they should be a little bit more expensive then the "regular" eggs but the yolks are very dark yellow, almost orange, they are reeaallly good. You can also ask for eggs with "twin" yolks, or double yolks, they sell them separate in a box with all eggs with two yolks, they are also more expensive but some people like them better.